Page 54 - Education in a Digital World

Theoretical Approaches 41

All of these perspectives also point to the obvious complexity of educational
technology and the likelihood that there will be no clear answers and no straight-
forward analyses. Indeed, it worth reminding ourselves at this point of the inevitably
contradictory and contested nature of the next six chapters. While we can be
certain that education is not technologically determined, neither should we fall into
the temptation of assuming that education is somehow party to a reductive form of
economic determinism. Above all, we also need to take care not to overstate the
coherence, power and achievements of the ‘big issues’ that we are tackling – not
least capital and the neoliberal economic project. As John Clarke (2004, p.29)
reminds us, we need to be suitably appropriate in our arguments and attributions:

I want to insist on treating contradiction and contestation as integral elements
of these processes. I want to argue that there are contradictions within and
between the processes of globalisation, manifested in unevennesses,
disturbances and encounters with old and new resistances and refusals.

So with all these caveats of complexity, contradiction and unevenness to the fore,
we can now move forward into developing a set of inter-related accounts and
analyses of the recent implementation and use of technology in educational settings
the world over. We shall start with what is perhaps one of the most extensive but
least discussed aspects of educational technology implementation and use around
the world – the role of supranational and intergovernmental organisations. Just what
are the linkages between educational technology and the activities and interests of
organisations that are located above the level of national governments and nation states?